Jaipur, Apr 5 (IANS): In the wake of steep rise in Covid-19 cases, the Rajasthan government has announced new guidelines under which gyms, cinema halls, amusement parks and swimming polls would remain closed from April 5-19.

The government has also directed to close schools for Class 1 to 9.

The decisions were taken on Sunday night during a high level meeting called by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot to review the situation following the steep rise in Covid cases.

On Saturday, the Chief Minister announced that strict actions will be taken for the next 15 days to check the Covid spread.

Also the government has announced closure for all classes running in the colleges except for the final year of Postgraduate and Undergraduate, however practicals will be allowed.

Going further, district collectors and police commissioners have been given special rights to announce night curfews where required.

The restaurants will have to be closed during the night, however take away and home delivery will be allowed.

As per the new guidelines, only 100 people will be allowed to attend wedding ceremonies. Only 75 per cent staff would be allowed to work in the government offices and people have been advised to suspend their travel to places where Covid patients are high in numbers.

Over 8,000 covid cases have been reported in Rajasthan in the last one week.

In the last 24 hours, 1,729 Covid cases have been reported out of which the highest cases were registered in Jaipur which counted to 258, Ajmer 96, Bhilwara 96, Chittaurgarh 68, Jodhpur 194, Kota 225, Dungarpur 85 and Udaipur has 137 cases. The active cases in the state have touched 12,878, confirmed health officials.